The reason that I changed the mirrors was " AGGRAVATION FACTOR ", I had the passenger side mirror that needed the glass changed because the mirroring was almost gone. I found another whole mirror of an MC8 which was the right one.
This all started when I tried to remove the screws to take the glass out of the extra mirror. Just wasn't happening, The steel screws had welded themselves into the aluminum housing. I then checked to see if I could get the screws out of the one on the bus. Well needless to say that wasn't working either for the same reason.
I backed up a few steps and decided just to swap the heads. Well I had gotten part of the ARM with the mirror off the MC8 and it was a short arm so wouldn't necessarily fit in place of the MC9 arm which was longer.
I couldn't get the head off the old MC8 arm because the setscrew was corrosion bonded to the aluminum housing, Then the pin was bonded to the aluminum head. So without going the route of destructive dissassembly I found that I was wasting time.
I heated and used extreme actions to try to remove the head from the old shaft. Just wasn't gonna happen without destroying the glass which is all I needed......
Well, So I proceded to try removing the old mirror off the bus. Oh. Gee.. It came off way too easy, I just couldn't get the trim ring off to get the glass out without destroying the whole thing.... GRRRRRRRRR...
I spent way too much time and energy to just replace a mirror. I stepped back.....
The end result was that I could not stand there and deal with those old style mirrors anymore. I walked away....
I was doing a search and ran across Southeast Bus Parts & Service's website. Looky .. Mirrors.. And Affordable Too...
I called them and asked a few questions and decided to order a set of the Mirror-Lite Bus mirrors.. Like around $55 each..
No metal parts to rust or sieze up and easy to repair because they are modular design.
Sold me right then... I had wasted about $300 worth of labor fighting with a no-win scenario, I broke tools too..$$$
All I needed was 2-Pieces of 3/4 I.D. Steel Tubing with a 1" diameter outer. Measured to 10 inches long...
oh about $3.00 worth of tubing.
Since I had the passenger side mirror head already off I only had to spend 45 minutes cutting and grinding the one loose from the drivers side. ( It was corrosion welded to the shaft! )
I am finding that I get tired of fighting with things when it's easier to step back and figure out an easy and better replacement
using more up to date parts. Can't always win at that but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to keep your sanity...
On another note, That day went so well that it scared me.... Oh.. Don't worry I got paid back for winning one battle the next
day... I went to use my air tools... Oooops.. what No Air... My big compressor had tripped the breaker....
As I reset the breaker I looked back towards the compressor which is about 80 feet away and as it tried to start up the SMOKE escaped from the motor in a giant plume..... Acccckkkk....
I had seen replacement motors in stock at Tractor Supply which is about 2 miles away... I went to get a motor....
Ooopps.. None on the shelf..... OH..No....
They looked to see if any were on their next inbound order... Nope, Not restocked automatically. They found one in another
store which is 50 miles away. So Sunday was Drive a 100 mile round trip for a $200 motor.
So on the way back home I get a call from work... Emergency... One of the machines quit working...
I got home, rested a few minutes, had lunch and jumped into the Isuzu to drive to Orlando...
Spent an hour fixing a bad cable and back home.. Gee another 90 miles...
Sorry to ramble on... Enjoy.....